If there’s one thing that Attack on Titan, “Deceiver” did was cement my hatred for Gabi. I don’t care about her upbringing and I don’t care that she was brainwashed from birth. Falco was brought up in the same environment and he’s a good kid. Eren said so himself. Gabi’s schtick of “Island Devils need to die” is getting old and hopefully, there’s more character development going forward and she learns some compassion. That being said, let’s delve into the latest episode of Attack on Titan: The Final Season, “Deceiver”, for this review.
There’s no doubt that these last few episodes have been setting up for something much grander. Things are about to get real. And Gabi is insane. She’s a hardened “warrior” and this episode shows it. She killed the guard to escape and was about to kill the young girl, who coincidentally is the same girl that Sasha saved in season two, before Falco stepped in. The girl realizes they are Marleyan and there is a huge conversation about who’s right, who’s wrong, and why those on the Island did nothing wrong and are not “devils.” Falco is open to these ideas. Gabi is so brainwashed that she can’t see past the fact that the girl’s mother who was eaten alive did nothing wrong, similar to those in Marley who were killed during Eren’s attack in the internment zone. Or those who were killed by Marley in their assault on Paradis Island nine years or so ago. The great thing about Attack on Titan is that there aren’t any villains per se, there are just heroes on both sides. Falco is easily becoming one of my characters in the series, while Gabi I just hate even more. I wonder what the girl will think when she finds out Gabi killed Sasha, which is an eventuality it seems.
On the other side of the Island, Floch and some of the new recruits leaked the fact that Eren is detained by the military. This, in turn, gets them detained. There seems to be a schism not only in the military but on Paradis Island itself. Many support Eren and his actions and believe him to be some kind of Savior or God who will re-establish the Eldian Empire. I don’t think Eren has any desire for that. Then there are others who view what he did as an atrocity, hence why he’s locked up right now. Though, as he said, he can break out at any time. There was so much set up in the episode and the pace has slowed, but that’s not a bad thing. We got several episodes of some of the best action we’ve ever had in Attack on Titan. This is all set up for the finale, and it couldn’t be executed better.
One thing that must be mentioned is that the animation in this episode was excellent. The character models were on-point, unlike last episode where everything seemed off. MAPPA has done an excellent job so far, and 99% of the animation has been great, but this episode really stood out, despite there being no action to speak of. The music was subtle but accompanied the episode very well. This was a very well-executed episode, especially since we didn’t see much, if any, of our main characters. It was focused on secondary characters and fleshed them out a bit, which was fairly nice.
Given the explosion in the preview for next week, it is apparent that things are about to “blow up.” We’ll have to see what precisely happens, but it looks like next week is where the action starts back up again and the plot will move forward after three episodes of setup. Which isn’t a bad thing. The pacing so far this season has been stellar, and MAPPA is doing a great job adapting Attack on Titan faithfully. This last episode, “Deceiver”, may not win any awards for being one of the best episodes of the series, but it was a really good entry that bridges the gap from what has happened to what is yet to be.